Wednesday, January 6, 2016

No ideas ?

When BBC presenter and executive James Harding went looking for the Future of News during 2014, he acquired Air Miles, offered (this month last year) some opaque rodomontade, and failed to spot the short answer. The Future of News is smaller, at least in cash terms.

Media hack Neil Midgley has learned that News employees will be invited to envision that smallness in meetings on Friday. Friendly-faced war veteran Adrian Van Klaveren will apparently stroke money-saving suggestions from supine staff by a combination of tickling their tummies and looking sad.

In November, James emailed staff to say that an exercise to compare costs with other news organisations was underway. Many will look forward to the results of that. One might ask if any had a Head of Strategic Change on a package of £193k a year ?

It will also be interesting to see who steps forward to take part in volunteering savings across the Harding Empire. Lord Hall has almost ringfenced spending in Scotland and Wales in comments ahead of Charter Renewal, and James Purnell has engaged with politicians in both nations about enhanced news coverage. Local Radio looks pretty safe, once again saved by global warming. Regional TV is in the pink. The cold winds will largely be blowing in Broadcasting House.